IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/nat/natcom/v9y2018i1d10.1038_s41467-018-03353-2.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Dark zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet controlled by distributed biologically-active impurities

Author

Listed:
  • Jonathan C. Ryan

    (Aberystwyth University
    University of California, Los Angeles
    Brown University)

  • Alun Hubbard

    (Aberystwyth University
    University of Tromsø)

  • Marek Stibal

    (Charles University
    Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland)

  • Tristram D. Irvine-Fynn

    (Aberystwyth University)

  • Joseph Cook

    (University of Sheffield)

  • Laurence C. Smith

    (University of California, Los Angeles)

  • Karen Cameron

    (Aberystwyth University)

  • Jason Box

    (Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland)

Abstract

Albedo—a primary control on surface melt—varies considerably across the Greenland Ice Sheet yet the specific surface types that comprise its dark zone remain unquantified. Here we use UAV imagery to attribute seven distinct surface types to observed albedo along a 25 km transect dissecting the western, ablating sector of the ice sheet. Our results demonstrate that distributed surface impurities—an admixture of dust, black carbon and pigmented algae—explain 73% of the observed spatial variability in albedo and are responsible for the dark zone itself. Crevassing and supraglacial water also drive albedo reduction but due to their limited extent, explain just 12 and 15% of the observed variability respectively. Cryoconite, concentrated in large holes or fluvial deposits, is the darkest surface type but accounts for

Suggested Citation

  • Jonathan C. Ryan & Alun Hubbard & Marek Stibal & Tristram D. Irvine-Fynn & Joseph Cook & Laurence C. Smith & Karen Cameron & Jason Box, 2018. "Dark zone of the Greenland Ice Sheet controlled by distributed biologically-active impurities," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 9(1), pages 1-10, December.
    • Handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03353-2
    DOI: 10.1038/s41467-018-03353-2
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-018-03353-2
    File Function: Abstract
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1038/s41467-018-03353-2?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. J. C. Ryan & L. C. Smith & S. W. Cooley & B. Pearson & N. Wever & E. Keenan & J. T. M. Lenaerts, 2022. "Decreasing surface albedo signifies a growing importance of clouds for Greenland Ice Sheet meltwater production," Nature Communications, Nature, vol. 13(1), pages 1-8, December.
    2. Kumar Vikrant & Eilhann E. Kwon & Ki-Hyun Kim & Christian Sonne & Minsung Kang & Zang-Ho Shon, 2020. "Air Pollution and Its Association with the Greenland Ice Sheet Melt," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 13(1), pages 1-13, December.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:nat:natcom:v:9:y:2018:i:1:d:10.1038_s41467-018-03353-2. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Sonal Shukla or Springer Nature Abstracting and Indexing (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.nature.com .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.